Parchment Helps Learners Exchange 20 Million Academic Credentials

On July 20, Parchment, a leading academic credential management company, facilitated the exchange of its 20 millionth credential request. For 12 years, millions of learners across the United States have relied on Parchment to safely and securely facilitate the delivery of their academic credentials to higher education institutions, employers, licensing boards and other associations.

Chantal Aguirre, a 17-year old from Austin, Texas, marked the 20 millionth credential request when she engaged Parchment to send her Vista Ridge High School transcript to Arizona State University. Aguirre plans to apply to “five or six” colleges and would like to study geography in hopes of one day joining the Peace Corps.

Founded as “Docufide” in 2003, the company began working directly with high schools to facilitate the digital exchange of student transcripts to higher education admissions offices. In its first year, the company exchanged 128 credentials at the request of learners. When Docufide became Parchment in 2011, the company had recently achieved the milestone of one million credentials processed.

Since 2011, Parchment has rapidly grown its institutional member network to include College Registrars and began to build out a system that would support multiple types of academic credentials, beyond eTranscripts. While it took seven years to reach the one million mark, today Parchment is exchanging nearly one million credentials every two months.

“It’s an exciting time to be directly involved in the movement of academic credentials,” said Parchment CEO Matthew Pittinsky, Ph.D. “I am so proud of what the Parchment team has accomplished in partnership with our member schools and universities. We have seen tremendous growth as more and more academic institutions and learners continue to rely on us to safely and securely deliver their credentials to the desired destination.”

Today, the Parchment network reaches more than 22 percent of the secondary enrollments and 14 percent of the postsecondary enrollments in the United States. Institutions like American Public University, Temple University, University of California, San Diego and thousands more rely on Parchment to improve operational efficiencies, reduce cost and most importantly, improve the learner experience.

Earlier this month, Parchment introduced Parchment 7, the most advanced academic credential management system with new functionalities. Users will enjoy a simplified, modern interface, the ability for multi-credential ordering and learners can share their credentials on their LinkedIn and Facebook pages.

“Prior to Parchment, our manual process of credential fulfillment was difficult,” said Michael Rendon, University Registrar at Texas A&M University- Corpus Christi. “All of our issues with printing and fulfilling plummeted our customer service. On our best days, we would say that our turnaround was 3-5 business days. With Parchment, we can accept orders 24/7, collect payment and deliver certified digital credentials in just minutes.”

On the secondary side, Parchment works with individual schools and school districts to maximize the opportunities learners have to advance their credentials. Jose Almazon, Director of Admissions with United Independent School District in Laredo, Texas details Parchment’s ease of use for young learners, “Parchment enrollment and transcript requests are as easy as using an ATM. This service helps open the doors of the world that some of these students wouldn’t normally have.”

Students are demanding a modernization of the credentials and Parchment is committed to helping institutions innovate. Introduced this spring, the Credential Innovation Framework offers credential issuers with five activity clusters as a guide to extending credentials to further empower learners. From simply going digital to communicating more content, the framework demonstrates the degree of innovation and measure of learner empowerment.

Parchment is committed to operating in an environment of open standards where learners’ electronic credentials can be securely exchanged worldwide. Today, Parchment is the only organization recognized with the P20W Electronic Standards Council (PESC) Seal of Approval, for their implementation of PESC Approved Standards. In addition, Parchment integrates with the Standardization of Postsecondary Education Data Exchange (SPEEDE) and is a signatory to G.R.E.E.N, the Global Registrar EduRecord Exchange Network™ for higher education. In May 2015, Parchment became a signatory to the Groningen Declaration, a set of principles focused on improving student data mobility.

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